A Non-Profit Organization June 2013 • Volume 34:6 Interview with Dr. Aubrey de Grey Page 6 HIV, Immunosenescence, and Accelerated Aging Page 12 Member Dues Credit for Bringing in New Members Page 18 ISSN 1054-4305 $9.95 Improve Your Odds of a Good Cryopreservation You have your cryonics funding and contracts in place but have you considered other steps you can take to prevent problems down the road? _ Keep Alcor up-to-date about personal and medical changes. _ Update your Alcor paperwork to reflect your current wishes. _ Execute a cryonics-friendly Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. _ Wear your bracelet and talk to your friends and family about your desire to be cryopreserved. _ Ask your relatives to sign Affidavits stating that they will not interfere with your cryopreservation. _ Attend local cryonics meetings or start a local group yourself. _ Contribute to Alcor’s operations and research. Contact Alcor (1-877-462-5267) and let us know how we can assist you. Take a look at the Your source for news about: ALCOR BLOG • Cryonics technology • Cryopreservation cases • Television programs about cryonics http://www.alcor.org/blog/ • Speaking events and meetings • Employment opportunities Alcor Life Connect with Alcor members and supporters on our Extension official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/alcor.life.extension. Foundation foundation is on Become a fan and encourage interested friends, family members, and colleagues to support us too. A Non-Profit Organization rofit Organization A Non-P lume 34:6 June 2013 • Vo CONTENTS 5 QUOD INCEPIMUS CONFICIEMUS rview with COVER STORY: PAGE 6 Marketing Cryonics Inte brey r. Au Cryonics magazine editor Aschwin D ey Interview with de Gr de Wolf’s column aims to Page 6 nce, Dr. Aubrey de Grey senesce further the cause of human uno d Aging , Imm rate On a November weekend in HIV le cryopreservation by debunking and Acce age 12 dit 2002, a strange looking fellow P es Cre ew misconceptions and offering fresh er Du Memb named Aubrey de Grey took perspectives. r Bringing in N fo ers Memb the stage at the 5th Alcor Page 18 conference to present a proposal 9 IN PERPETUITY ISSN 1054-4305 to defeat aging called Strategies The Valley of the Shadow of for Engineered Negligible Death $9.95 Senescence (SENS). More than Keegan Macintosh’s monthly column about legal issues 10 years later we meet with surrounding cryonics and life Aubrey again to talk about the extension. nature of aging, rejuvenation, and the future of cryonics. 14 FOR THE RECORD Cryonics in New York: Optimism before the First Freezing, 1966-68 Mike Perry’s indispensable column about important 12 COOLER MINDS PREVAIL figures and events in life extension, cryonics, and human HIV, Immunosenescence, and Accelerated Aging enhancement. A column by Chana de Wolf about neuroscience, cryonics, and life extension. 19 Tech News We read the news to uncover the most promising and exciting 18 Member Dues Credit for Bringing in New Members developments in science and technology. A new initiative to grow Alcor membership and keep it affordable. Alcor CEO Max More announces a new program that waives 20 Membership Statistics membership dues for bringing in new members. Grow Alcor and How many members, associate save money at the same time! members, and patients does Alcor have and where do they live? www.alcor.org Cryonics / June 2013 3 A Non-Profit Organization The James Bedford Society ifts have played a fundamental role in the cryonics movement since its earliest days. Dr. James Bedford, a Editorial Board man whose extraordinary vision led him to become the Saul Kent G first person to be cryopreserved, and the first to make a bequest to Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D. a cryonics organization, exemplified the determination of the early Brian Wowk, Ph.D. pioneers of cryonics. We invite you to follow in his footsteps, and join the James Bedford Society. Editor The James Bedford Society recognizes those who make a Aschwin de Wolf bequest of any size to the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. If you have already provided a gift Contributing Writers Aschwin de Wolf for Alcor in your estate, please send a copy of your relevant documents Chana de Wolf to Alcor’s Finance Director, Bonnie Magee. Keegan Macintosh If you’d like to learn more about setting up a bequest, send an email Max More, Ph.D. to [email protected] or call 480-905-1906 x114 to discuss your gift. Mike Perry, Ph.D. _____________________________ Copyright 2013 by Alcor Life Extension Foundation All rights reserved. 2013 Annual Giving Program Reproduction, in whole or part, without permission is prohibited. lcor provides a wide array of services for you the member, and the general Apublic. We inform and educate, we protect and preserve, and we strive to remain Cryonics magazine is published monthly. at the forefront of cryonics technology. Since its founding, Alcor has relied on member support to maintain its mission To subscribe to the printed edition and attract new members. Your support, regardless of size, can provide a better and/or change your address, please future for all cryonicists. Please act now. call 480.905.1906 x101or visit the magazine website: Suggested Giving Levels www.alcor.org/magazine $20 Friend Please note: If you change your address $60 Junior Supporter less than a month before the magazine is mailed, it may be sent to your old address. $120 Sustaining Supporter _____________________________ Address correspondence to: $500 Advocate Supporter Cryonics Magazine $1,000 Leading Supporter 7895 East Acoma Drive, Suite 110 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 $2,500 Visionary Supporter Phone: 480.905.1906 Toll free: 877.462.5267 $5,000 Silver Supporter Fax: 480.922.9027 $10,000 Gold Supporter Letters to the Editor welcome: [email protected] $25,000 Titanium Supporter $50,000 Vanguard Supporter Advertising inquiries: 480.905.1906 x113 We encourage every member to donate. Even if you can only afford $5 right now, [email protected] you will make a significant contribution to Alcor’s future. ISSN: 1054-4305 Donations may be made via the Donations button on the Alcor website or by contacting Alcor’s Finance Director, Bonnie Magee, at [email protected]. Your Visit us on the web at www.alcor.org donation may be made as a lump sum or divided into easy monthly payments. Alcor News Blog http://www.alcor.org/blog/ 4 Cryonics / June 2013 www.alcor.org Quod incepimus conficiemus Photo: Cryo-Care Equipment Corporation on Indian School Road in Phoenix, AZ. Dr. Bedford’s “home” from 1967 to 1969. MARKETING Cryonics By Aschwin de Wolf ince I have been involved in the field matter at the molecular level and and calibrate our message to show that of cryonics I have encountered two extremely long lives will be possible, cryonics is not something threatening Sdistinct views on the marketing of even for people considered “dead” but something aimed at preserving lives cryonics. One view holds that cryonics today. Technology is accelerating and keeping people together. is characterized by a disproportional towards the Singularity. Most Now, think about these different ways involvement of scientists, intellectuals, and likely, cryopreserved people will be of conceptualizing cryonics from the people with computer backgrounds who resuscitated as substrate-independent perspective of marketing. It seems to me that are totally unequipped to sell the idea to the minds. Cryonics is part of the broader the first perspective is not only extraordinary larger masses. The marketing of cryonics “immortalist” and “transhumanist” difficult to sell but that the most proper should be done by people with a “business” movements. Not all people agree with expectation here would be more akin to or “marketing” background. us and we need to identify the biases damage control. If you are frustrated about The other view is that people who that give rise to these attitudes so we the fact that you are always discussing expect a lot from marketing of cryonics are can change their minds. If you are “something else” instead of cryonics there is blind to the most obvious fact about our concerned about resuscitation in a a good chance that this is the result of either field. Most people reject cryonics and don’t different and strange world, you need a lack of restraint in promoting other ideas want it. No sane business would spend vast to toughen up. you care about under the rubric of cryonics amounts of time and money on a product 2. Current developments in science and or that the person in question has read just or service that people don’t want. medicine increasingly throw doubts too many popular accounts about cryonics While I am personally more sympathetic on the idea of “death” as a single and that discuss the Singularity, immortality, to the latter perspective, I suspect that a uniform event. We can stabilize people mind uploading, or chopping off heads. As rather obvious point is being overlooked. at ultra-low temperatures to allow much as I hate to admit it, some of the bad What seems to matter a great deal is how them to benefit from future medical PR surrounding cryonics is self-inflicted. cryonics is conceptualized and “sold” to developments. Cryonics is a logical If anyone would ask me today if successful the general public. Let me illustrate this extension of other medical procedures marketing of cryonics is possible I would by contrasting two really different ways in which people are stabilized for further answer that this really depends on whether of talking about cryonics. I am purposely treatment. The pace of technological we are trying to sell a complete worldview simplifying things here to get the point across.